As a result, the county’s water supply avoided contamination and Nashville was able to dodge going strictly to bottled water.

“It felt real good,” said Allen Rogers, a 49-year-old Nashville man jailed at the county lock-up for failure to pay child support. “It felt like we did something for our county and made it better for our city.”

The Davidson County Sheriff’s Department was asked to begin assembling sandbags on Sunday. In total, inmates put together 500 tons of sandbags, which were used at the water treatment plant and at the damaged levee at MetroCenter.

About 400 inmates, who volunteered to do the sandbagging, put in 36 consecutive hours of work in order to save the treatment center.

According to sheriff’s department spokeswoman Karla Weikal, every inmate held at the county jail volunteered to do the work.

According to Rogers, inmates were working in chest-deep water at the water treatment facility late Monday.

“It was very close,” Rogers said. “It was coming up the steps … we had to go out and get into the water. Guys get wet in the face, they were hit with debris, but we kept working.”

As of Tuesday, county inmates were still working, handing out water and preparing to participate in clean-up efforts.

“People who live in different neighborhoods need water and we want to get it to them as soon as we can,” Rogers said.